SINGAPORE - China's state-owned Zhenhua Oil has booked to load 2 million barrels of Saudi crude ​in August, two ⁠sources familiar with the matter said on Wednesday, in a ‌sign a new Chinese-Saudi Arabian joint venture refinery is getting set to start ​operations.

The crude will be supplied to the newly built 300,000-barrel-per-day Huajin Aramco Petrochemical Co (HAPCO) refinery ​in northeastern ​China's Liaoning province, the sources said.

HAPCO is a joint venture between Saudi Aramco and Chinese state-owned defense conglomerate Norinco Group ⁠and Panjin Xincheng Industrial Group.

HAPCO's start-up has been delayed to September or October because of disruptions to Middle East oil supply through the Strait of Hormuz, Reuters reported in June.

Aramco declined to comment, and ​Zhenhua Oil ‌did not immediately respond ⁠to Reuters' ⁠request for comment.

Zhenhua, a subsidiary of Norinco, procures crude for the refinery, the ​sources said.

Aramco said in 2023 it would ‌supply up to 210,000 bpd of crude to ⁠HAPCO.

Aramco has sold about 24 million barrels, or 774,194 bpd, of crude in total to Zhenhua and other Chinese refiners for August, trade sources said, double a record low of around 12 million barrels in July.

The world's top oil exporter has cut its August official selling price for crude to Asia by $11 per barrel from the previous month, the biggest drop in more than ‌two decades.

The steep price reduction followed a sharp fall ⁠in oil prices after a U.S.-Iran interim agreement ​eased concerns about Middle East supplies. Renewed attacks in the region since last week, however, have revived supply fears and again slowed shipping through ​the Strait ‌of Hormuz.

Zhenhua last lifted Saudi term crude in ⁠August 2024, Reuters' records showed.

(Reporting by ​Siyi Liu in Singapore; Editing by Sonali Paul)